Colonial Revival

Cushing-Gay Townhouse // 1862

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The Cushing-Gay Townhouse at 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston stands out as one of the most unique and pleasing early remodeled homes to look at. 170 Beacon was built by 1862 as one of two contiguous houses (168-170 Beacon) built for John Gardiner Cushing and his younger brother, Robert Maynard Cushing. John Gardiner Cushing built this house, which was originally a Second Empire style home similar to the dark gray residence nextdoor. The Cushing Family owned the property until 1894 and the property was sold to Helen (Ellis) Brooke, the the wife of Rev. Stopford Wentworth Brooke a British politician and later a minister of the First Church (Unitarian) of Boston. The Brooke’s moved back to England in 1900 and this home was sold to Eben Howard Gay, a banker and note broker. Eben’s wife of less than two years died just before he purchased this house on Beacon Street, she was just 26 years old. As a bachelor, Eben Gay hired architect and interior designer Ogden Codman, Jr., to remodel the 1860s house, giving it the present Adamesque front façade and new interiors to provide a setting for his collection of Chippendale furniture. The after being bought and sold numerous times following Gay’s financial struggles and selling of his prized home, the Cushing-Gay Townhome was purchased by the German Government in 1966 and is today the Goethe Institute, Boston, a cultural center and language school for the German language.

Derby Townhouse // 1886

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Hasket Derby (1835-1914), was the grandson of Elias Hasket Derby, a prominent trader in Salem, MA., who was thought at one time to be the richest man in the United States. Hasket married Sarah Mason and the family lived in Boston. Dr. Hasket Derby was a renowned opthamologist and had this townhouse built in the Back Bay of Boston in 1886. He hired architect William Ralph Emerson, who ditched his prototypical Shingle style for the urban townhouse in the Colonial Revival style. The townhouse exhibits a brownstone swans neck pediment at the entry, three-story rounded bow, dentilled cornice and brick pilasters framing the bays. Its an often overlooked house in Back Bay, but so very special.

Unity Village School // 1898

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The town of Unity, Maine, was incorporated in 1804, and for most of the 19th century had small district schools for the education of its children. In 1894, the state enacted legislation that encouraged the consolidation of school districts in order to improve quality and building standards. The town, whose population and student enrollment had been declining, voted in 1898 to build this school, which effectively replaced four of its eight district schools. The Colonial Revival style schoolhouse was built by Joseph Sawyer of Fairfield, Maine. The Village School remained the town’s largest primary school until 1953, when increasing enrollment and school overcrowding prompted the decision to build a new elementary school.

Thompson Cottage // c.1892

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Who doesn’t love a good porte-cochere? In case you don’t know what they are, a porte-cochere is a covered porch-like structure at an entrance to a building where either a horse and carriage (historically) or car (today) can pass under to provide arriving and departing occupants protection from the elements. They are normally found on larger residences and institutional building where the wealthy frequent. The Thompson Cottage on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor was built around 1892 for James B. Thompson from Philadelphia. The original cottage was largely updated after Thompson’s death in 1915, the property was owned by Annie Cannell Trotter, who summered at another house in the colony with her husband Nathan Trotter, until his death.

William R. White Cottage // c.1892

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Another of the fantastic Summer cottages on Grindstone Neck in Winter Harbor, Maine is the William R. White cottage. The house was built around 1892 for William Robert White (1846-1914) who less than a decade prior, established the Robesonia Iron Company and made a fortune from his home in Philadelphia. His family joined many other Philadelphia-natives and assisted with the establishment of the Grindstone Neck colony in Winter Harbor, where upper-class city-dwellers could escape the hustle-and-bustle of urban living and experience clean air and nature (while still being around other “equals”). The original cottage was more rustic with strong Shingle-style and Craftsman elements, and was updated and enlarged sometime in the early 20th century to its present appearance. Now more stately, the “cottage” has a large hipped roof, an arched, sheltered front porch, and more Colonial influence.

Hammond Hall // 1903

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Winter Harbor, Maine, may just be my new favorite place in the state! The town is located just east of Mount Desert Island, south of Gouldsboro (of which it was a village within the town). In 1895, after the Grindstone Neck summer colony was developed, the town’s increased finances and outlook led them to incorporate as a separate town. And what does any new town need? A town hall! Construction of the hall was proposed in 1902 by Edward J. Hammond, owner of a local lumber business who made his fortune shipping and selling the Maine lumber in Boston. Hammond donated the building materials and building lot after a fire swept through Winter Harbor village. The town offices moved out of the building in 1958, and the main hall continued to be used as a school gymnasium until 1987. The town then sold the building to the Winter Harbor Historical Society. Lack of funding by the turn of the present century resulted in the building’s decline, and it was slated for demolition in 2002. It was rescued by Schoodic Arts For All, a cultural organization that brings a variety of events to the space, which now holds a long-term lease on the property. The building looks great today!

Southbury Training School // 1940

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The Southbury Training School occupies about 1,500 acres of land in Southbury, Connecticut comprised of two major sections: a self-sustaining 400-acre institutional campus and its contiguous 1,100-acre farm complex. Planning for the Southbury Training School began in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression. The State needed to provide housing and services for 1,200 residents on the waiting list for the Mansfield Training School, the state’s only facility for the mentally handicapped at that time. Site planning and development were the responsibility of architect Edwin A. Salmon, later Chairman of the NYC Planning Commission, along with A. F. Brinckerhoff, who was hired as the landscape architect. Two buildings of the nearly 100 that comprise the campus stood out to me the most, they are the Roselle School and the Administration Building. Both structures were built in 1940 and are hallmark examples of inter-war Colonial Revival style buildings for institutional use. Both structures have large cupolas at the roof and symmetrical facades with applied wood ornament over the brick. The Roselle School has a recessed entry and the Administration Building is notable for its hipped roof and pilastered façade. In recent decades, the State of Connecticut has been under-funding the complex, leading to lawsuits and concerns statewide. The state has been moving residents and patients to other facilities, likely in order to sell-off or redevelop the campus in the future. This is one to watch out for!

A. C. Houghton Mansion // 1897

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The first mayor of North Adams, Albert Charles “A. C.” Houghton (1844-1914), built this house on Church Street in 1897. Albert was born in Stamford, Vermont and would become president and principal owner of Arnold Print Works (now Mass MoCA campus) and the Beaver Mill in town. He did well for himself and had this large mansion built from plans by Berkshires architect Henry Neill Wilson. Tragically, on August 1, 1914, A. C. Houghton was being driven in town by his driver with his daughter Mary and her husband in the car. They crashed and both Mary and her husband died, with seventy-year-old Albert succumbing to his wounds over a week later in his home. His driver soon thereafter shot himself. The Houghton mansion was inherited by Albert’s wife Cordelia, who passed away in 1918. Their daughter Florence Gallup next inherited the mansion but was living in the Boston area, and she decided to sell the family home to the local Masonic Lodge in 1927. They likely added the brick addition at the rear for meetings and events soon after. It is not clear to me what the mansion is used for today, any locals have more information?

The Porches Inn // 1895

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Prior to a few decades ago, there were not many reasons one would visit or stay a weekend in North Adams, Massachusetts. The former industrial city, like many others in the region, saw a sharp decline in population, services, and quality of life when many of the local factories closed in the second half of the 20th century. The major draw of tourists today is Mass MoCA, a museum in a converted factory building complex that is now one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States! The new museum has created a huge demand for restaurants, housing, and hotels of all types in the formerly decaying river city. This is a story of perseverance and rebirth! In the early 2000s, Jack Wadsworth, an alumnus of nearby Williams College, wished to revitalize a block of vacant 19th-century workers houses across from the growing attraction of MASS MoCA. He worked with Burr and McCallum Architects of Williamstown to convert the decaying workers cottages into a boutique hotel. The span of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival cottages were joined via a long porch lined with rocking chairs, and the space between the buildings is bridged with skylights, giving the complex its appropriate name, Porches Inn.

Ashe House // 1898

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North Adams, like many formerly industrial towns and cities in New England has some amazing old Victorian and Colonial Revival houses built before the factories closed. Luckily for us, this town still has many unaltered residences, with some needing more love than others. This is the Ashe House, built in 1897-8 for Patrick J. Ashe and wife Katherine O’Brien. Classical details from many different styles make this house unique. An oval window dominates the traditional Greek facade which includes a pediment and side pilasters. A palladian window sits over the elliptical porch which is supported by columns. This one has so much potential!!